Introduction
Background
Rural-urban labour migration is a critical driver of economic development in Ghana. The structural transformation agenda by the government of Ghana influences urbanization patterns, labour market dynamics, and rural livelihoods. However, traditional data collection methods, such as surveys and censuses, often fail to capture the fluid and dynamic nature of migration. In this context, Call Detail Records (CDR) from mobile phone networks present a novel, cost-effective, and scalable approach to understanding migration trends.
CDR data provide a rich source of information on the movement patterns of individuals, derived from their interactions with mobile phone towers. By leveraging CDR data, this project seeks to generate actionable insights into the volume, direction, and frequency of rural-urban labour migration in Ghana, with a focus on identifying patterns, trends, and socio-economic implications.
Purpose
In this project, Ghana Statistical Service and Flowminder in collaborating with the ONS Accelerator Program to develop data science solutions which may improved our understanding of labour movement with the use of dynamic population estimates. Many public metrics and indicators on migration are calculated using the traditional data sources most often used to estimate population size, such as censuses or surveys, often cannot account for seasonal variations and migration trends, and therefore may be inaccurate and outdated.
This document, presents monthly, district-level population estimates from CDR data provided by Telecel Ghana, and other datasets to provide actionable insights on labour movement. We also present our main findings on the variations in the district-level population between Rural and Urban zones as a response to government policies.
Summary Statistics
32,626,606Monthly changeYear-on-year changeDifference from projectionResults
Regional Population and Comparism to Projections
Greater Accra followed by Ashanti had the highest population of 6181206 and 5670095 respectively. Where as Greater Accra followed by Ashanti had the lowest population of 6181206 and 5670095 respectively.
Upper West, Bono, Oti, Northern, Bono East, Western, Ashanti and North East lost population compared to regional projections.
Relocations Between Regions
In this section we focus on people’s relocations, i.e. the estimated number of persons relocating (i.e. changing their home location) between regions. Each relocation measurement is initially calculated using the monthly median value of all people relocating, in the period December 2024 and the area of interest. We look first at the largest relocations between regions, and then separately at relocations from and to areas of interest
Relocations to the region
Select a region to display relocations from other regions into the selected region.
Relocations from the region
Select a region to display relocations from the selected regions to other region.
